Garden Party

Table

It wouldn't be a garden party without the red checked table cloth.  Pair with white cloth napkins, a casually placed straw hat and a few picnic pests and you're on your way.

The centerpiece can be anything from nature. A simple floral arrangement  works well.  Scatter a few broken twigs and a few fallen leaves for an added touch of nature. 

Ants- Place two large ants by the centerpiece. These can easily be put together with snack cakes. Get three of any snack cake for each ant: ring dings®, sno-balls® sprinkled with cocoa powder, cream-filled cupcakes...insert six pretzel sticks for legs and two for antennae.

If the party will be held at a dining room table with a chandelier, suspend a ring-ding ® spider from the light fixture.

Just use your imagination to create more unwanted pests. Twinkies® can easily transform into caterpillars, Lifesavers® become eyes, licorice whips- curly tongues.

Decorations

What else should you bring to a garden party but kites and butterflies?  A few brightly-colored inexpensive kites can be secured to the corners of the room.  Paper butterflies can become wall hangings or suspended from the ceiling if the room allows.

Party Favors

A miniature straw basket makes a nice "loot bag". Fill with snack size mini pies, juice boxes and a few sweets and the guests can take home their own mini picnic.

Inexpensive straw hats can be filled with party favors like plastic sunglasses and colorful handkerchiefs.

The Cake

Any size cake can be decorated to look like a picnic basket. 

Using a pastry bag filled with brown frosting, make vertical lines about one inch apart down the length of the cake. (Star or basket weave tips work best). Now begin weaving the horizontal frosting strips.  

To give the illusion that the frosting is weaving over and under the vertical strips, guide every other row over the vertical strip.  In row one, begin the horizontal row at the edge, cross over the first vertical line and continue it to the second vertical line, ending the first weave just before this second vertical line.  Begin the row again to the right of this second vertical line and end it to the left of the third vertical line. Continue until the first row is complete.

In the second horizontal row, cover the vertical line that is not covered in the first row. Follow the same procedure as above keeping the weave between the row above it.